Brown, Warren look for campaign edge

Wednesday

Oct 10, 2012 at 10:14 AMOct 10, 2012 at 8:44 PM

For those getting caught up in the highest-priced Senate race in the country, the third televised debate between U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren on a theater stage in Springfield was must-see TV tonight. With only 27 days left before Election Day, it was one of the last chances for candidates to rope in voters on live television and to set a course for the final campaign drive.

By John J. Monahan TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

For those getting caught up in the highest-priced Senate race in the country, the third televised debate between U.S. Sen. Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren on a theater stage in Springfield was must-see TV tonight.

With only 27 days left before Election Day, it was one of the last chances for candidates to rope in voters on live television and to set a course for the final campaign drive. The debate comes at a time when the campaigns have become increasingly confrontational, battling over personal attacks as much as political differences. Polls show victory is within each candidate's grasp.

The candidates were on the stage of Springfield's historic Symphony Hall in an hourlong face-off widely broadcast around the state and on national outlets, including C-Span.

Moderator Jim Madigan of WGBY-TV 57 asked the candidates questions solicited from the public and assembled by a group of local journalists before a full house of 2,600 people.

The race could barely be tighter, according to polling. Ms. Warren is debating in a region where she has proven strongest among likely voters.

A Western New England University Polling institute survey of likely voters the week of Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 had Ms. Warren leading 50 percent to 45 percent statewide. That poll had Ms. Warren ahead 58 percent to 41 percent in Western Massachusetts, 50 percent to 47 percent on the North and South shore areas, and 50 percent to 42 percent in the Boston area. In Central Massachusetts, Mr. Brown is leading , 60 percent to 36 percent, according to the poll.

Two polls released yesterday, however, showed the race tightening. A WBUR/MassINC poll shows Mr. Brown leading 48 percent to 45 percent, while a UMass-Amherst poll had Warren leading, 48 percent to 46 percent.

Some issues spilled over from the first debate, in Lowell.

Campaign issues include Mr. Brown's criticism of Warren's private legal work; his refusal to release a list of his past legal clients as previously promised; and Mr. Brown's identification during the last debate of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, seen as the most conservative justice, as his model of a Supreme Court judge.

In one of the Democrat's harshest ads so far in the campaign, Ms. Warren this week blasted Mr. Brown for an ad he put out accusing her of misrepresenting her role in representing Travelers Insurance in a Supreme Court case over a trust fund to compensate asbestos workers.

Mr. Brown accused her in their last debate of siding against asbestos workers, and in the new ad, argues the case shows she is not who she claims to be. She put out an ad late last week featuring the daughter of an asbestos workers disputing Brown's claims, calling them “shameful” and accusing Mr. Brown of intentionally misleading voters in an attempt to capitalize on the suffering of asbestos victim families.

In her radio response, Ms. Warren states, “I've been out there working for asbestos victims, including going to the United States Supreme Court to try to protect a half a billion dollar judgment for them.” Mr. Brown for his part still maintains she was a “hired gun” to protect the insurance company, not the victims.

Meanwhile, Brown will be pressed to make his case that the state will benefit from his positioning himself as an independent vote in the Senate, despite his partisan allegiances.

Ms. Warren was tasked to lay out her final campaign themes, reinforce her arguments for middle class tax cuts and more spending in education and infrastructure. Ms. Warren took the opportunity to to tie Mr. Brown to his longtime political ally, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is polling badly in his home state.

Mr. Brown this week continued to argue that raising taxes on those earning more than $250,000 would cost hundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide. Ms. Warren, meanwhile, stumped with Caroline Kennedy and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and announced a new field push aimed at boosting support from seniors.

Page Brody, executive director of the Springfield Public Forum, which linked up with an array of local media outlets to host the debate, said the sponsors are aware of the intense interest in the race.

“This debate is a key part of one of the most closely watched Senate races in the country,” she said. “It puts a national spotlight on the candidates and provides Springfield and Western Massachusetts with an opportunity to host a high-profile, high-stakes event. The mission of the Springfield Public Forum has always been to bring important dialogues to our area and to make that discourse free and open to the public.”